34 - Sacred Music in Colonial America

Summary

Sacred music played a complex and crucial role in the development of colonial American religious cultures from the earliest encounters of Europeans and indigenous peoples to the Revolution of 1776. The ritual singing of sacred texts is a constituent part of most religious cultures, and colonial religions produced a rich diversity of such sacred music. This multiplicity, however, developed within the broader context of colonialism that imposed processes of transmission, assimilation, and hybridization on every religious community in the New World. Understanding sacred music in colonial America therefore demands attention both to its variety and to the common cultural processes that shaped it.

MUSIC AND MISSIONS

The original sacred music of North America was that of indigenous peoples. Hundreds of First Nations occupied the continent at the time of European encounter. Their cultures were grounded in traditional religious worldviews whose principal means of expression were singing and dancing. From shamanistic healing chants to calendric festival dances, the religions of Native Americans were filled with musical vocalization, typically accompanied by rhythm instruments like drums and rattles.

Indigenous religions understood humans to live in a sacred cosmos in which all natural forces and things were personified in spirit beings. The religious task of humans was to live in balance with these beings by honoring them in celebrative or sacrificial rituals and invoking them for aid in times of famine or disease.